I think criticism is warranted, but the column puts it in the wrong place. To wit:

The game was full of reminders to all of us who were not completely sold on the Tribe’s off-season that there may indeed be reason to be nervous

IMO, the Tribe's offseason had about a 1% impact on last night's game.

CC would have pitched and strained his gut whether or not the Indians signed Millwood.

Michaels went 1-4. Not great, but not Grady-bad. He had one good play and one bad play in the outfield. (I was unfortunately relying on the radio, and based on the call the plays seemed like a wash...and so I don't know whether Crisp Would Have Had It. Of course, I remember the opening week of last season, when Omar Would Have Had It was the most frequent comment on the team.) Michaels also got his first assist of the season, too.

Graves was the first guy out of the bullpen. Criticism warranted, but it's less a function of not having Howry or Rhodes and more that (for some reason) the FO decided that A) a true long-reliever is unnecessary and B) Graves is a better option than Brown, Tallet, Tadano and Davis.

Jumbo wrote:Graves was the first guy out of the bullpen. Criticism warranted, but it's less a function of not having Howry or Rhodes and more that (for some reason) the FO decided that A) a true long-reliever is unnecessary and B) Graves is a better option than Brown, Tallet, Tadano and Davis.

Well, this is clearly asinine. Note that the White Sox brought in their Long Man who happens to be their Next Hotshot Starter. If this doesn't provide impetus to being Carmona up (ESPECIALLY if Sabathia is out for anything more than a week, which I'm assuming), we're handicapping ourselves, and this team isn't good enough to do that. It's good, but not good enough to be dumb.

Jumbo
C.C. getting injured showed that losing a great starter to free agency makes an injury to another that much more of an issue.
Thome was one of the players we were targeting to acquire to fill a hole that we needed (1b, rf, 3b) and didnt
Cabrera has been hailed as why we dont need Howry by many

There's really no other move that makes sense. BTW, you bring up an interesting point: unless I've forgotten someone, the Indians seem to have been skeptical of the "break in a young guy in the bullpen" method...like what the Twins did for Santana, are doing for Liriano, and the White Sox are doing with McCarthy. The only guy I can think of currently is Westbrook, and he was in the pen less because they thought it was the best way to get him experience and more because they thought he wasn't that good.

BTW, I revise my comments slightly: even if the Indians had a long man to go to post-CC, that guy still would've been out of the game after the rain delay.

C.C. getting injured showed that losing a great starter to free agency makes an injury to another that much more of an issue.

Except that, no matter who the Indians signed, Carmona or Sowers would still be the injury replacement. They weren't going to sign more than two starting pitchers anyway...and even that was criticized, as some (including, for a time, me) thought they would be better off just starting with Carmona or Sowers as #5.

Thome was one of the players we were targeting to acquire to fill a hole that we needed (1b, rf, 3b) and didnt

Thome can't play RF or 3B. He might be able to play first, but (on the basis of only one game) the Broussard/Perez platoon might be alright.

Cabrera has been hailed as why we dont need Howry by many

Actually, I think Cabrera was more hailed for why we allegedly didn't need Wickman.

Well, I know everyone wanted to make a statement against the Sox and everything...but it is just one game. Furthermore, the conditions were pretty ridiculous...I don't understand the urgency to get that game in with an off day the next day.

Anyway, it's just a loss. The Tribe will lose games like this a few times this year (bad defense, a guy getting slapped around in the bullpen)...everybody does.

C.C. getting injured showed that losing a great starter to free agency makes an injury to another that much more of an issue.

Please stop making the Millwood loss to be the selling of Babe Ruth. I know he pitched well, even outstanding, but he was responsible for 9 wins. His contribution was keeping teams to a couple of runs, and being ok with being pulled as soon as he got in a jam in the 6th inning and letting the bullpen get out of it. It was automatic. He only had 9 wins because he never finished the 6th inning. Had he pitched his way out of some of thise jams, maybe he could of won more games. A 6IP, 2 run guy does not warrant this kind of attention.

RIGS wrote:JumboC.C. getting injured showed that losing a great starter to free agency makes an injury to another that much more of an issue.

RIGS wrote:SykesI was not in favor of signing Millwood. He is still a quality starter though.

Okay, so in the span of a few days, Millwood went from a "great" starter to a "quality" starter? What changed your mind? His 5 IP and 5 ER performance yesterday didn't have anything to do with it....did it?